NIPs review and update

Guidance to assist Parties in updating their NIP to address the new POPs

The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Stockholm Convention decided to list 9 new chemicals in 2009 and an additional one in 2011. These newly listed chemicals are commonly referred to as the new POPs. Parties to the Convention must develop a national implementation plan (NIP) for meeting the obligations of the Convention. To date the majority of Parties have submitted an initial NIP to the COP. When chemicals are added to the Convention, Parties need to review their NIP and update it with information on how they will address the newly listed POPs. The process of reviewing and updating the NIPs can be challenging for Parties that lack adequate resources and technical capacity. Parties have expressed the need for assistance in that regard and in particular in obtaining information on the presence of new POPs that are widely used for industrial purposes and are contained in articles.

To assist Parties in updating their NIP to address the new POPs, a set of guidance documents has been developed by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), working in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention (SSC). The set of guidance documents aims at supporting Parties in developing strategies to restrict and eliminate the new POPs, by providing guidance on establishing inventories, monitoring the presence of products and articles containing new POPs, and selecting best available techniques and best environmental practices for situations when production, use and recycling of industrial POPs are allowed by the Convention.

Although each document focuses on a specific topic, they complement one another in many areas and will be published together as a complete set. The documents seek to provide guidance to all Parties to the Convention and in particular developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition.

More Information

To see all submitted NIPs, please visit the official website of the Stockholm Convention. It comprises all NIP documents, with or without UNIDO assistance.